U.S. patent number 6,376,000 [Application Number 09/477,002] was granted by the patent office on 2002-04-23 for method of creating painted chocolate.
Invention is credited to Peter B Waters.
United States Patent |
6,376,000 |
Waters |
April 23, 2002 |
Method of creating painted chocolate
Abstract
A method of forming chocolate mold having an image printed
thereon. The method includes the steps of forming a piece of edible
paper, releasably securing a first side of the edible paper to a
backing sheet, printing an image on a second side of the edible
paper and securing the edible paper to the chocolate mold. The
image is printed on the edible paper by a printer using food
coloring loaded into a cartridge of the printer. The step of
securing the edible paper to the chocolate mold may include placing
the edible paper within a mold with the image facing a side of the
mold, pouring chocolate into the mold and atop the edible paper,
allowing the chocolate poured into the mold to harden and removing
the hardened chocolate and edible paper from the mold. The
hardening of the chocolate forms a bond between the chocolate and
the edible paper it is poured atop. Alternatively, the step of
securing the edible paper to the chocolate mold may include pouring
chocolate into a mold, allowing the chocolate poured into the mold
to harden, removing the hardened chocolate from the mold and
securing the edible paper to a desired position on the hardened
chocolate. In this instance, the edible paper is secured to the
hardened chocolate with an edible adhesive such as gum arabic.
Inventors: |
Waters; Peter B (East Norwich,
NY) |
Family
ID: |
23894100 |
Appl.
No.: |
09/477,002 |
Filed: |
January 3, 2000 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
426/383; 426/104;
426/249; 426/302; 426/306; 426/515; 426/87; 426/93 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A23G
3/2023 (20130101); A23G 3/2053 (20130101); A23G
3/28 (20130101); A23G 3/54 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
A23G
3/02 (20060101); A23G 3/00 (20060101); A23G
3/28 (20060101); A23G 3/20 (20060101); A23G
003/00 () |
Field of
Search: |
;426/87,104,383,93,515,249,306,302 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Foreign Patent Documents
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|
2057985 |
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Jun 1993 |
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CA |
|
298862 |
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Sep 1954 |
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CH |
|
838948 |
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Jun 1960 |
|
GB |
|
62-36151 |
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Feb 1987 |
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JP |
|
1-235546 |
|
Sep 1989 |
|
JP |
|
1-50376 |
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Oct 1989 |
|
JP |
|
WO95/01735 |
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Jan 1995 |
|
WO |
|
WO97/27759 |
|
Aug 1997 |
|
WO |
|
WO 97/43908 |
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Nov 1997 |
|
WO |
|
Other References
Swiss Colony, Christmas Gift Book, 1982 Copy in 426/104 1982.*
.
Photographic, p. 14 Copy in 426/104 Sep. 1988.* .
Printout of Website for Lucks. com No Date. .
Printout of Website for Printing Images CtC, Inc. No Date. .
Printout of Website for "Your Face On a Cake" No Date. .
Printout of Website for "Edible Cake Art" No Date. .
Printout of Website for "Icing Images" No Date. .
Printout of Website for "Cake Top Publisher" No Date. .
Printout of Website for DecoPac No Date. .
Press release from Lumina Office Products No Date..
|
Primary Examiner: Weinstein; Steven
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Kroll; Michael I.
Claims
What is claimed is new and desired to be protected by Letters
Patent is set forth in the appended claims:
1. A method of forming a molded chocolate product having a printed
image on a flat side thereof to form an edible framed picture, said
method comprising the steps of:
a) forming a piece of edible paper having a first side and an
opposite second side;
b) releasably securing a first side of the edible paper to an
inedible backing sheet;
c) using a printer having a cartridge containing micro filtered
edible food coloring to print an edible image on said second side
of the edible paper;
d) placing the edible paper containing said printed edible image
within and on a raised horizontal, central planar section of a mold
with the image facing downwardly and contacting said planar section
of the mold so that any substance poured into the mold will not
cover the image printed on said second side, said planar section of
the mold being surrounded by a downwardly extending recess, said
mold having outer perimeter walls beyond the central planar section
encompassing and defining the recess extending downwardly from the
central planar section with said outer perimeter walls rising above
said central planar section to define the space in the mold,
followed by peeling said inedible backing sheet from said edible
paper;
e) pouring chocolate into the mold atop the edible paper and into
said recess so that said chocolate fills said recess and completely
covers the edible paper filling the space in the mold above as
defined by said outer perimeter walls of the mold;
f) allowing the chocolate poured into the mold to harden in the
mold while in contact with the edible paper such that the edible
paper is bonded and secured to the hardened chocolate; and
g) removing the hardened chocolate together with the bonded edible
paper from the mold, said edible paper forming a bond with said
hardened chocolate and said image facing away from said chocolate,
the chocolate hardened in said recess taking the shape of a picture
frame, framing said image to provide a picture-like structure, the
edible chocolate framing a picture formed by said edible image.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the chocolate is either brown
chocolate or white chocolate or a mixture of brown and white
chocolate.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the backing sheet is made of
either plastic or wax paper.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to methods of forming
chocolate and, more specifically, to a method of forming art work
on a chocolate mold without causing the chocolate to become
unstable and flake.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Numerous methods of placing art work on chocolate molds have been
provided in the prior art. An examples of such a method includes
hand painting the chocolate bar with a desired image. However,
creating a chocolate mold in this manner was very time consuming,
labor intensive and tedious. Another attempt at placing art work on
a chocolate mold centered around printing a desired image directly
on the chocolate. This method printed the image on chocolate which
is the wrong color for the image, is oily and has an uneven
surface. Thus, this method did not provide consistent and desirable
results. Still other methods centered around silk screening images
on rice paper and gluing the rice paper to the chocolate. This
method required large runs of numerous units and also created
chocolate which was unstable and flaked.
While these methods may be suitable for the particular purpose to
which they address, they would not be as suitable for the purposes
of the present invention as heretofore described.
SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to methods of forming
chocolate and, more specifically, to a method of forming art work
on a chocolate mold without causing the chocolate to become
unstable and flake.
A primary object of the present invention is to provide a method of
creating a chocolate mold having art printed thereon that will
overcome the shortcomings of prior art devices.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of
creating a chocolate mold having art printed thereon which is able
to provide a stable chocolate bar which does not flake.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a method of
creating a chocolate mold having art printed thereon which is able
to bond an image to a chocolate bar with a minimal amount of effort
while adequately securing the image to the chocolate bar.
A yet further object of the present invention is to provide a
method of creating a chocolate mold having art printed thereon
wherein the securing of the image to the chocolate bar will not
affect the consistency of the chocolate.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a
method of creating a chocolate mold having art printed thereon
including printing the image on a piece of edible paper using a
conventional color printer filled with food coloring for each color
to be used on the image.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a method of
creating a chocolate mold having art printed thereon wherein the
edible paper containing the image thereon is placed within a mold
and chocolate is poured thereon and allowed to harden.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a method of
creating a chocolate mold having art printed thereon wherein the
edible paper is bonded to the chocolate poured into the mold during
hardening.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of
creating a chocolate mold having art printed thereon that is simple
and easy to use.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a
method of creating a chocolate mold having art printed thereon that
is economical in cost to manufacture.
Additional objects of the present invention will appear as the
description proceeds.
A method of creating a chocolate mold having art printed thereon is
disclosed by the present invention. The method includes the steps
of forming a piece of edible paper, releasably securing a first
side of the edible paper to a backing sheet, printing an image on a
second side of the edible paper and securing the edible paper to
the chocolate mold. The image is printed on the edible paper by a
printer using food coloring loaded into a cartridge of the printer.
The step of securing the edible paper to the chocolate mold may
include placing the edible paper within a mold with the image
facing a side of the mold, pouring chocolate into the mold and atop
the edible paper, allowing the chocolate poured into the mold to
harden and removing the hardened chocolate and edible paper from
the mold. The hardening of the chocolate forms a bond between the
chocolate and the edible paper it is poured atop. Alternatively,
the step of securing the edible paper to the chocolate mold may
include pouring chocolate into a mold, allowing the chocolate
poured into the mold to harden, removing the hardened chocolate
from the mold and securing the edible paper to a desired position
on the hardened chocolate. In this instance, the edible paper is
secured to the hardened chocolate with an edible adhesive such as
gum arabic.
To the accomplishment of the above and related objects, this
invention may be embodied in the form illustrated in the
accompanying drawings, attention being called to the fact, however,
that the drawings are illustrative only, and that changes may be
made in the specific construction illustrated and described within
the scope of the appended claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES
Various other objects, features and attendant advantages of the
present invention will become more fully appreciated as the same
becomes better understood when considered in conjunction with the
accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters designate
the same or similar parts throughout the several views.
FIG. 1 is a side perspective view of the first step of the method
of the present invention for forming a chocolate mold having art
printed thereon, placing the edible paper on a sheet of wax
paper;
FIG. 2 is a side perspective view of the second step of the method
of the present invention for forming a chocolate mold having art
printed thereon, passing the edible paper through a printer;
FIG. 3 is a side perspective view of the third step of the method
of the present invention for forming a chocolate mold having art
printed thereon, placing the edible paper in a mold and pouring
chocolate thereon;
FIG. 4 is a side perspective view of the hardened chocolate mold
having the edible paper bonded thereto by an edible adhesive
substance;
FIG. 5 is a side perspective view of the fourth step of the method
of the present invention for forming a chocolate mold having art
printed thereon, removing the hardened chocolate and edible paper
bonded thereto from the mold;
FIG. 6 is a front perspective view of the chocolate mold having art
printed thereon formed by the method of the present invention;
and
FIG. 7 is flow chart illustrating the method of the present
invention for forming a chocolate mold having art printed
thereon.
DESCRIPTION OF THE REFERENCED NUMERALS
Turning now descriptively to the drawings, in which similar
reference characters denote similar elements throughout the several
views, the Figures illustrate the method of creating a chocolate
mold having art printed thereon of the present invention. With
regard to the reference numerals used, the following numbering is
used throughout the various drawing figures.
10 piece of edible paper
12 backing sheet for supporting piece of edible paper
14 color printer cartridge
16 printer
18 processor
20 connection cable connecting processor to printer
22 disk drive
24 keyboard
26 mouse
28 monitor
30 mold
32 face side of edible paper
34 back side of edible paper
36 chocolate
38 edible adhesive
40 image
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Turning now descriptively to the drawings, in which similar
reference characters denote similar elements throughout the several
views, FIGS. 1 through 7 illustrate the method of creating a
chocolate mold having art printed thereon of the present
invention.
The method of creating chocolate mold having art printed thereon is
started by making a piece of edible paper indicated in FIG. 1 by
the reference numeral 10. The edible paper is preferably made from
sugar, corn syrup, corn starch, microcrystaline cellulose,
vegetable oil, titanium dioxide and a preservative. These
ingredients are mixed together to form a pasty material and is
rolled into a flat sheet. The flat sheet of edible paper 10 is then
rolled onto a piece of wax paper or plastic 12 to provide support
therefore. The edible paper 10 is rolled into a very thin sheet and
left on the wax paper 12. Edible paper 10 such as is made for
performing the method of the present invention is similar to
products made and used by cake decorating companies for
transferring silk screen drawings on to frosting. The cake
decorating companies print on the material and place the printed
material on a cake where it is allowed to dissolve into the
frosting, leaving a picture on the cake. When this material is
allowed to dry it disintegrates and looks similar to dandruff.
After the edible paper 10 is positioned on and supported by the wax
paper 12, a cartridge 14 of an ink jet printer 16 is filled with
micro filtered food coloring. The color cartridge 14 is preferably
filled with numerous colors of food coloring such as red, yellow,
blue and black. The colors of food coloring filling the cartridge
14 will be determined based upon the colors needed to produce the
desired image. Once the color cartridge 14 is filled, the edible
paper 10 and wax paper 12 backing the edible paper 10 is loaded
into the printer 16 as illustrated in FIG. 2. Any printer which is
able to receive refillable cartridges containing food grade
coloring may be used. At the time of loading the edible paper 10
should be damp and pliable so as to easily be loaded into the
printer 18 and able to retain the ink used for printing. The
printer 16 is connected to a processor 18 such as a computer via a
connection cable 20. The processor 18 is used to generate the image
or to read the image from a storage medium in a disk drive 22. The
processor 18 is loaded with a graphics program allowing an image to
be generated using a keyboard 24 and a mouse 26. The image being
generated can be viewed on a monitor 28 connected to the processor
18. The processor 18, disk drive 20, keyboard 22, mouse 24 and
monitor 28 are all conventional computer devices normally used to
generate an image. Once the image is created, the printer 16 is
used to print the image on the edible paper 10. When the printer 16
finishes printing the image on the edible paper 10, the edible
paper 10 is removed from the printer 14. Upon removal of the edible
paper 10 from the printer 14, the edible paper is cut to a desired
size and shape.
It is now time to create the mold. This can be performed in one of
two preferred ways. A first method of forming the mold is to place
the edible paper 10 within a mold 30 as illustrated in FIG. 3. The
edible paper 10 is positioned at a desired location within the mold
30 corresponding to the position at which the image is desired to
appear in the finished chocolate mold and the wax paper 12 is
removed from a back side 34 of the edible paper 10. The edible
paper 10 is positioned face side 32 down in the mold 30 so that any
substance poured in the mold 30 will not cover the image printed on
the face side 32. Once the edible paper 10 is positioned within the
mold 30, melted chocolate 36 is poured into the mold 30 and over a
back side 34 of the edible paper 10. The chocolate 36 is allowed to
cool within the mold 30. As the chocolate 36 cools, a bond is
formed between the chocolate 36 and the edible paper 10. The edible
paper 10 is thus secured to the hardened chocolate 36. The hardened
chocolate 36 and edible paper 10 bonded thereto are then removed
from the mold 30.
Alternatively, the chocolate 36 may be poured into the mold 30 and
allowed to harden without first placing the edible paper 10 into
the mold 30. Once the chocolate has hardened it is removed from
within the mold 30. At this time, the edible paper 10 may be
secured in position to the hardened chocolate 36 using an edible
adhesive 38. An exemplary adhesive is gum arabic. The edible
adhesive 38 acts to glue the edible paper 10 to the chocolate after
hardening as illustrated in FIG. 4. The edible adhesive 38 secures
the back side 34 of the edible paper 10 to the chocolate 36 in a
desired position to thereby provide a view of the image printed on
the face side 32 of the edible paper 10.
A side view of the finished chocolate mold is illustrated in FIG. 5
and a front view of the finished chocolate mold is illustrated in
FIG. 6. FIG. 5 shows a cross-sectional view of the hardened
chocolate 36 and the edible paper 10 secured thereto when removed
from the mold 30. As can be seen from this view, the edible paper
10 is bonded to the hardened chocolate 36 and held in position by
the bond therebetween. The face side view of FIG. 6 shows an image
40 printed on the edible paper 10 by the printer 14 and the
chocolate 36 in the shape of a picture frame. The edible paper 10
is bonded in position within the picture frame formed by the
hardened chocolate 36 and the image 40 is clearly viewable. The
hardened chocolate and image bonded thereto is then wrapped and
ready for distribution and sale.
The detail of the image printed on the edible paper 10 may be
controlled by the smoothness of the edible paper 10. The smoothness
of the edible paper 10 may be controlled by further rolling of the
edible paper 10 to decrease its thickness and remove any lumps
which may have formed in the paper or application of a gel coating.
The sharpness of the image may also be controlled by enhancing the
dots per inch (dpi) of the printer 14. A printer 14 having a higher
dpi is able to print a sharper more detailed image. The contrast
provided to the image may also be altered by mixing a white
chocolate in with the traditional brown chocolate, bonding the
image in a pure white chocolate or mixing layers of white and dark
chocolate together.
The method of forming the chocolate mold having an image 10 printed
thereon will now be described with reference to the figures and
specifically FIG. 7. In operation, the chocolate mold having art
printed thereon 10 is made by first forming a piece of edible paper
10 as discussed in step S2. The edible paper 10 is then rolled onto
a plastic or wax paper to provide support for the edible paper 10
as stated in step S4. The edible paper 10 is rolled to form a very
thin layer when placed on the wax paper 12. The edible paper 10 is
now ready to be printed on.
The printer 16 is now prepared to print on the edible paper 10 by
loading the printer cartridge 14 with micro filtered food coloring
as described in step S6 and the cartridge 14 is loaded into the
printer 16. The edible paper and wax paper releasably secured
thereto is then loaded into the printer 16 as discussed in step S8
and an image desired to be printed on the edible paper 10 is
created on a computer using a graphics program as stated in step
S10. Once the desired image is created, the printer 16 is
controlled to print the image on the edible paper 10 loaded therein
as described in step S12. Once the image is printed on the edible
paper 10, the edible paper 10 and wax paper 12 releasably secured
thereto are removed from the printer and the edible paper 10 is
detached from the wax paper 12. The edible paper 10 is now cut to a
desired size and shape for placement into the mold 30 as discussed
in step S14. The cut edible paper 10 is now placed into a desired
location of the mold 30 as stated in step S16. The edible paper 10
is positioned within the mold 30 such that the image 40 printed on
the face side 32 thereof is against a side of the mold 30.
Now that the edible paper 10 is cut to size and positioned within
the mold 30, it is time to pour chocolate 36 into the mold atop the
edible paper 10 as discussed in step S18. The chocolate is then
allowed to harden. As the chocolate 36 hardens, a bond is formed
with the back side 34 of the edible paper 10 causing the chocolate
36 and edible paper 10 to be secured together as described in step
S20. The hardened chocolate 36 and edible paper 10 secured thereto
is now removed from the mold as stated in step S22.
Alternatively, the edible paper need not be positioned within the
mold prior to pouring the chocolate therein but instead may be
secured to the chocolate after the chocolate is allowed to harden
and is removed from the mold 30. In this instance an edible
adhesive will be applied to the chocolate and the back side of the
edible paper and used to secure the edible paper 10 to a desired
position on the chocolate 36.
The chocolate 36 and edible paper secured thereto is now ready to
be wrapped as discussed in step S24. Once wrapped, the chocolate
mold including the image printed thereon is ready to be distributed
to vendors and sold.
From the above description it can be seen that the chocolate mold
having art printed thereon of the present invention is able to
overcome the shortcomings of prior art devices by providing a
chocolate mold having art printed thereon which is able to provide
a stable chocolate bar which does not flake. The method of forming
the chocolate mold having art printed thereon bonds an image to a
chocolate bar with a minimal amount of effort while adequately
securing the image to the chocolate bar, wherein the securing of
the image to the chocolate bar does not affect the consistency of
the chocolate. The method of forming the chocolate mold having art
printed thereon includes the step of printing the image on a piece
of edible paper using a conventional color printer filled with food
coloring for each color to be used on the image, placing the edible
paper containing the image thereon within a mold and chocolate is
poured thereon and allowed to harden and bonding the edible paper
to the chocolate poured into the mold during hardening.
Furthermore, the chocolate mold having art printed thereon of the
present invention is simple and easy to use and economical in cost
to manufacture.
It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or
two or more together may also find a useful application in other
types of methods differing from the type described above.
While certain novel features of this invention have been shown and
described and are pointed out in the annexed claims, it is not
intended to be limited to the details above, since it will be
understood that various omissions, modifications, substitutions and
changes in the forms and details of the device illustrated and in
its operation can be made by those skilled in the art without
departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention.
Without further analysis, the foregoing will so fully reveal the
gist of the present invention that others can, by applying current
knowledge, readily adapt it for various applications without
omitting features that, from the standpoint of prior art, fairly
constitute essential characteristics of the generic or specific
aspects of this invention.
* * * * *